Mini excursions and other things

I haven't had much of a chance to explore Beijing outside of the Beijing Normal University campus and vicinity. I have seen a fair number of markets and department stores as I have been getting myself all set up...but that's not very exciting. It can make for some interesting food and Chinglish language discoveries. I took some pictures of a few I saw recently. The first is of a brand of chips called "Lonely God." Sorry the picture is so bad...I was unsure about whether I could take pictures inside or not so I took it too fast. 
This next one is the name of potato chip aisle....actually seems kind of accurate.
The last one is the cake aisle...but it's called Beef in English....
I went with Zoe to an area called Houhai, which is around a lake and is quite beautiful at night. It's not far from Beijing Normal...about a 20 minute walk. Full of bars, music clubs and little shops. It's definitely expensive and a lot of it is aimed at wealthy tourists or Chinese people. Unfortunately I don't have the photography skills that Scott does, so my pictures are quite terrible, but I'll post them since they're all I have to show you of the area.

Here's a couple pics of Zoe and I in a nearby park. It's right at a subway stop called Mudanyuan, about a 15 min walk from the university's east gate.

Here's the cover of a blank notebook I bought - it's an excerpt from a Walt Whitman poem.

The funny thing is, I was going through some of my old notebooks from the last time I was in China and I found that I had written down a different part of the same poem in one of them. I don't remember whether I saw it somewhere in China or whether I read it somewhere else, but either way, there it was:

"I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

if you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged.

Missing me one place search another.

I stop somewhere waiting for you."